


If I taste you (will we know)

by calmena



Series: knew that I could fall [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Canon Divergence - Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, M/M, Not Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Not Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 10:27:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17282351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/calmena/pseuds/calmena
Summary: In which Bucky goes from threat-assessing Tony Stark to trying to feed him, and Steve is a confused puppy.





	If I taste you (will we know)

**Author's Note:**

> Title from The Real Tuesday Weld - Me & Mr. Wolf. Why does the title make this thing sound like a PWP when it really isn't one?  
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> My thanks go to flight_of_icarus for cheer-reading, and Kaity and earthelf for betaing. Without them, this fic would have vanished into the obscurity that is my google docs folder.

Living in the Avengers tower is a strange thing. It's, at once, more and less disquieting than Bucky thought it would be. Part of that may be because he's surrounded by people he immediately and instinctively classifies as threats, but he thinks the larger part is how everyone's making an effort not to watch him too obviously as if he's a bomb just waiting to go off.

Oh, he doesn't doubt that Steve has a constant awareness of Bucky as soon as they are in the same room, or that the Black Widow keeps her weapons close when he is near. But they aren't as transparent about it as Hydra had been, with their guards that would have been useless if the Winter Soldier had decided to go rogue.

The thing is, Bucky is observant. He watches. It's what he does. He thinks it might have been what he did before, as well, and not just something that came from being the Winter Soldier. He can't be sure though, because the vague impressions of a former life that he gets sometimes, feel more fake than anything else, and he doesn't like to assume.

For the longest time, the only times he'd watch people was when they were targets or obstacles on the way to said target. He knows that's not what this is, not anymore, but that doesn't mean his mind doesn't start going down familiar routes, making threat assessments and building character profiles to find weaknesses even when he's in what Steve refers to as a "safe place".

He's in the kitchen of the common floor because Steve's hearing would have him awake in a second if Bucky was on _their_ floor, and as much as he appreciates the fact that Steve is trying his very best not to be obvious about it, the constant watching gets exhausting sometimes. Instead, Bucky is doing his utmost to merge with the shadows while all but inhaling a bowl of left-over sweet-n-sour soup from dinner that day, when he hears soft footfalls coming closer.

For a second, he freezes in his movement, even as his mind flips through the possibilities. Steve sounds different, both lighter on his feet and heavier, and he can't immediately place the steps right then. He doesn't think he's in actual danger from whoever is approaching the kitchen, the steps are too loud and distracted for that, but he'd also made use of misdirection often enough during his time as the Winter Soldier to know better than to let his guard down.

Soundlessly, he slides open a drawer and palms the biggest knife he finds in there, moving to the side of the door to stay out of view, even as he's still cradling the bowl with soup in his other hand. And then, he waits.

There's a yawn, then a sound like someone almost stumbling over their own feet, just before Stark comes into view, mainlining the coffee pot without so much as glancing at anything else - not even, or especially not, the ex-assassin hidden in the shadows so close to where he entered the room.

For some reason, Bucky is surprised to find himself in Stark's presence. He knows that this is Stark's building, of course, couldn't _not_ know it even if there's only a big _A_ stuck to it now, instead of Stark's whole last name. But of all the Avengers, Stark is probably the one Bucky has interacted with the least since he first arrived at the tower, to the extent that even the sound of his footsteps is unfamiliar. Seeing him in the dark of the kitchen now, fresh from what seems to have been a long stint in his workshop, going by the grease stains on his shirt and worn jeans, catches him unprepared.

He ignores the automatic way he classifies Stark as a threat even when the man is obviously sleep-deprived enough to either not notice or not care that there is an assassin in the room with him. There are no Avengers he hasn't subconsciously identified as a threat so far, and he knows enough not to underestimate Stark or the artificial intelligence that runs the building, even if it doesn't seem to ever speak on Steve's level.

Which he's pretty sure is a security risk, now that he's considering it, and the thought makes him itch.

Stark mutters something unintelligible, even with Bucky's better-than-normal hearing, pushing the button that turns on the coffee machine.

Unseen, Bucky raises his eyebrow and questions the wisdom of coffee when Stark could obviously use some _actual_ sleep instead. He doesn't, however, say anything and just keeps watching the graceless fumbling about that somehow, against all odds, does not end with the coffee mug in shatters on the floor.

Part of him is so very, very tempted to gently lead Stark away from the coffee machine and towards his bed instead, but it's only a very small, very quiet part in the back of his head, and easy to ignore. The part that wants to continue watching is bigger and much more vocal, so this is what Bucky does.

He watches.

 

* * *

 

Stark doesn't have a routine, per se. He also doesn't _not_ have one, though.

Bucky has come to realize that Stark routinely works until he falls asleep in his workshop. Must do so, because as far as Bucky notices, Stark never takes the elevator _up_ from the common floor, to where his private floor is. It's always down instead, to what Bucky assumes is the workshop, though he never asks the AI to confirm.

He doubts he would get an answer, in any case.

He thinks about downgrading Stark's threat-level, but then he remembers that Stark routinely destroys his enemies until they're nonexistent, and he doesn't.

 

* * *

 

Stark doesn't pay enough attention to his health, Bucky decides, cutting the tomato in front of him with a vengeance.

Steve keeps shooting him worried, confused looks as if Bucky hadn't already noticed them as soon as he started hacking away with his knife.

Bucky ignores them and slams the knife down so that it gets stuck in the cutting board before he throws the vegetables into the pan. He doesn't think he cooked a lot during his time as the Winter Soldier - if he did, he's seriously doubting HYDRA's utilization of a brainwashed super-soldier under their control - but he's pretty sure he can still put together a vaguely healthy meal. Right after the thought, he almost loses half of the vegetables when he starts stirring and curses under his breath.

"What're you making, Bucky?" Steve tries carefully, still watching from the other side of the kitchen where he won't accidentally crowd Bucky. He made that mistake a few times in the beginning but learned really fast when a knife only just barely missed his ear. His expression has gone from worried-confused to just confused now, and that doesn't change when Bucky snarls back in frustration like it's an answer.

Bucky decides to ignore Steve and instead stirs the pet vigorously before he dumps the whole thing onto a plate with the cheeseburger he picked up from the place around the corner from the tower. The result doesn't look pretty, and he doubts that anyone without a supercharged metabolism would be able to finish it all, but he counts it a win regardless. Of course, then he tries to leave the room with the plate and a knife and fork in hand, and Steve makes the first move to stop him that he's made so far.

"Where are you going?" he asks, still that anxious tone in his voice as if Bucky will disappear the moment Steve takes his eyes off him, and Bucky sends him an unimpressed look. He takes care not to jostle the plate in his hand, because not one piece of vegetable should be wasted.

"Stark's workshop," he says shortly, turning and walking off without waiting for Steve's reaction. Steps follow him, and it only takes a few seconds for Steve to catch up to him as he waits for the elevator to take him down.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Steve asks, again so carefully, always so careful. If he didn't want to make Stark actually eat it, Bucky might have thrown the food at Steve's anxious face to make him stop looking like that.

"Stark's gotta eat, don't he?" he asks gruffly, rhetorically, when the elevator doors finally slide open to let him in. Since the AI doesn't say anything to stop him, Bucky assumes he's allowed to take the food down.

Steve steps into the elevator behind him, which is something that Bucky is less happy with, but as long as Steve doesn't try to stop him, he thinks he may be able to live with this.

"Why are you feeding Tony?" Steve asks quizzically, brows drawn together, eyes darting between the plate in Bucky's hands and Bucky's face.

Bucky shrugs. "The man's gotta eat."

"Well yes, but--"

The elevator doors slide open and Bucky leaves the rest of the sentence behind himself, ignoring the words even as Steve still can't stop following him even now.

The see-through sliding doors open for him without a comment from Stark's AI and Bucky enjoys the way that seems to shut Steve up for just a second before he starts to ask questions again, following after Bucky as if he has nowhere else to be.

Stark is leaning against a table, arms crossed over his chest, eyes set on Bucky as soon as he comes into view. There's a smirk hovering at the edges of his lips, but Bucky is certain he can see a hint of confusion in the crinkles by his eyes and the set of his shoulders. Something in him purrs at the thought that he was the cause for it.

The whole picture of poise that Stark projects is as fake as it could be and Bucky has no doubt that Stark was warned by his AI, and he thinks that maybe said AI would deserve its own threat assessment. It'd score highly, for sure. That's not what he's here for, though.

Stark's eyes slide down to the plate and his eyebrows rise just a bit.

Even if Stark knew he was coming, it seems the AI had been keeping the reason for the visit quiet. It only makes it all the sweeter when Bucky sets the plate down in an empty space on the table, very close to where Stark's thigh is leaning against the metal.

"Eat," he says gruffly, pointedly setting the fork and knife down as well. Then he turns round in a smooth movement, not even pausing to watch Stark's reaction, and walks past a blinking Steve and right back into the elevator, turning only once he's reached it.

"That was oddly threatening," Stark muses, amused tone in his voice, as the door slides closed in front of Bucky. His last view is of Stark sitting down and taking up the fork, and the purring part of him gets louder.

Yes, he decides. That man, he likes to watch.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm also writing a prequel to this now, so you know, that's a thing.


End file.
